Please help me narrow it down.

bazooka · Dec 30, 2009

He sent me a photo from this morning, but the EXIF data doesn't mention shutter count. It actually doesn't have any info for the settings used. The IMG number is 9184 (IMG_9184.jpg), so it's possible that it has that many clicks? I guess that's probably not a reliable way to tell.

I'm going to take a look at the camera after work today and make him an offer on the body alone if it seems ok.

The_Traveler · Dec 30, 2009

Exif has that; either he has truncated or your exif reader doesn't see it.
You can reduce the size and then SAVE as JPEG (not save for web). That will retain the exif and you can post it here for someone else to look at the Exif.

bazooka · Dec 30, 2009

Ok, here it is... I told him to send me a small jpg so maybe he resized in PP and that wiped the EXIF? I don't really know how EXIF data behaves.

The_Traveler · Dec 30, 2009

yes, he did SAVE for Web and that blanked the metadata.

tell him to set the quality to low and send you the entire picture.

bazooka · Dec 30, 2009

I met the guy today and ended up purchasing the body for $550 and passed on the lens. The fact that I could point it at the floor and it would extend with just a little jiggle bothered me. I want a better quality lens than that. It also seemed very dark (we were indoors, but still...).

Anyway, I hooked up the shutter count utility and it's got 19100. It's under the 30k that you recommended so I'm ok with that even though he was off by almost 300%.

Now, I just need to find a good lens to start with. Should I start a new thread?

Perhaps something like this? http://www.adorama.com/TM1750EOS.html#ProductReviews

Again, thanks to you and everyone else who helped me with this decision!

Dao · Dec 30, 2009

Congrats for your new camera. The lens creep is normal for the 28-135 IS USM lens. Nothing to worry about it.

The Tamron lens is the one I have and I used it with the 40D as well. That is my walk around lens. The autofocus is not as fast as the Canon USM lens, the build quality is not as strong as some of the Good Canon lens, but it is not bad either especially when you compare it with the Canon consumer grade lens.